April 1, 2006

April 1, 2006

Raccoon Valley Escapees RV Park, Knoxville, Tennessee

YEAR 2 DAY 288

 

Today was sunny and warm. I'm typing this late in the evening, listening to a bluegrass radio station. I like bluegrass music.

This morning when I walked Bo a neighbouring camper was walking a cat on a leash. Bo and I approached, and Bo visited with Missy. After returning to the trailer with Bo, I took Teddy out on a leash to visit Missy. Missy hissed and spat at Teddy. HA HA HA ... she's quite sociable with dogs, but anti-social towards other cats. I changed the calendars, and did the morning's regular chores and preventive maintenance. When I removed the truck's air cleaner and whacked it against a tire to dislodge a week's worth of travel dust out of it, I was surprised to see the size of the pollen cloud that emanated from the air filter. No wonder I've had hay fever for the last week or so. I did some repairs inside a kitchen cupboard. I was working outside, using the picnic table as a work bench, when Doug Langton, an Escapees Ontario Chapter 18 member walked by. We chatted for awhile. I drilled holes in the tops of the Rubbermaid totes in which we store the freshwater hoses and connectors, and waste water hoses and connectors. We've been experiencing some mould and mildew inside these totes, so I decided to drill ventilation holes in them. I hope that will solve the problem. Joanne cleaned all the hoses with bleach, including disinfecting the inside of the freshwater hoses with bleach. I took Bo for an obedience walk. I took some books to the park's library to exchange them.

We had lunch. I napped. When I woke, we did some cleaning projects that need to be done every six months or so, like removing the TV from its cabinet, and cleaning travel dust off the TV and the inside of the cabinet. I scanned the computer files for viruses and spyware, and defragmented the hard drive. I took the laptop to the laundry room and tried unsuccessfully to connect to the modem connection on the side of the pay phone, using a local Knoxville access number for AOL. I lost $1.50 in the pay phone trying to do this before I got really pissed off, and gave up. I switched to the toll free AOL access number, that costs 10 cents a minutes to use, but the pay phone doesn't require money for the use of a toll free number. I've hardly ever been successful using these modem jacks on the sides of pay phones. I retrievedand sent e-mail, retrieved my March bank statements, retrieved updated investment data, and updated my blog. I returned to the trailer and composed some e-mail responses.

Late this afternoon we had a new neighbour pull in beside us, towing a shiny looking Airstream trailer. It looked brand new. I found out, chatting with the owner as he set up, that only the side facing us looked brand new. They were on their way back from the Airstream factory in Ohio, where they had gone to have the entire side of their trailer replaced, at a cost in excess of $11,000. Sheesh ! He had an accident in a crowded Flying J parking lot. While manoeuvering around a crowded Flying J parking lot, in the dark, he scraped the side of his trailer against a ladder on the back of a fifth wheel. The ladder sliced through the aluminum skin of the Airstream like it was a can opener. And he didn't realize he was scraping his trailer against the fifth wheel's ladder until the entire side was ripped open. Ouch ! They have a little Jack Russell Terrier, named Pepper. Great ... 2 feisty, little terriers, side by side. Actually, Pepper and Bo were very friendly and sociable towards one another. Until ... ! ! ! I gave Pepper a dog biscuit from my pocket. He didn't want it, and dropped it on the ground. Bo ran over to pick it up. Big problemo ! Pepper adheres to the dog principle of ownership. "I don't want it, but you can't have it". A big terrier display of vicious snarling and snapping broke out very quickly, both dogs determined to assert their rights of "eminent domain" over this dog biscuit. All right ... break it up ! It's just a dog biscuit. Stupid terriers !

This campground has a creek flowing through it, that runs down out of the Great Smoky Mountain hills that surround the park. Across the creek are 3 hiking trails in the forest. We crossed the creek and went for a hike with Bo around the shortest of the 3 "loop" hiking trails. It was very pleasant, and I'd like to hike the other 2 trails before we leave.

Joanne wanted to go out for "barbecue", Tennessee style. We drove one Interstate exit back towards the city, to find Buddy's Bar-B-Q. It was okay. Nowhere near as good as barbecue at Blues City in Memphis. Joanne's theory is that "white men can't barbecue". HA HA HA HA ! And the clerk serving us was a screw-up, who got my order all wrong. Joanne was mostly finished eating her supper by the time I got my correct meal. After supper, we crossed the street to buy some groceries at a large grocery store called Ingles. On the way back to Raccoon Valley, Joanne wanted to explore the area a bit by driving around. We did that for awhile, but it's hard to explore in the dark.

Back at the trailer, Joanne defrosted the fridge while I did today's accounting, reviewed today's incoming e-mails that I hadn't yet read, then worked on today's journal entry. I changed all the clocks and watches, because of daylight savings time, then I went to the laundry room to send e-mail again.

DSK